Mindfulness Arises When We Are Aware Within the Body

Once we study and understand this, we can live with mindfulness in ourselves — an awareness held within. Being continuously mindful has two parts. The first gives rise to the sacred element of merit, or merit-power, arising the moment we set our attention or learn, whether in the posture of sitting, standing, walking, or even lying down. If we can establish mindfulness, it arises only when we are aware within our own body.

Uncontrollable Awareness: The Driving Example

If we drive a car and send our mind outward, that is called uncontrollable awareness — not mindfulness. Some people say, "I drive and I'm still mindful," but taking our awareness outward, toward the driver who cuts us off, toward the resulting displeasure, is merely awareness arising externally. That kind of awareness cannot be controlled, because we have placed our mind outside ourselves. Whoever provokes or leads us to feel displeasure, we are then ready to feel displeased at all times.

Mindfulness Is Bringing Feeling Back Within

When we establish mindfulness, we bring our views, feelings, and emotions back within. Then we can control them. Suppose displeasure arises — we immediately recognize that displeasure has arisen, and we can calm and settle it, not letting it lead to anger or further discontent. Because we are held within ourselves, we can control our emotions and ourselves, and awareness arises of how not to lose our composure. This is yoniso-manasikāra, wise reflection or skillful means to guard the mind — and it can only arise when there is mindfulness.

Sati-Sampajañña: An Essential Tool for Daily Life

Sati-sampajañña is an essential tool that keeps us grounded in meditation and in daily life. When we return to ordinary living, there will inevitably be chaos from things we cannot control. But we can live in a chaotic world without being chaotic ourselves — living in peace and calm — only when we hold mindful awareness within, bringing mind and body together inside ourselves, and training this way continuously. Mindfulness does not arise on its own; it arises only when we set our intention, as in sitting meditation. If we sit but let our mind wander outward, there is no mindfulness within — that is called restless sitting. But when we set our awareness within and repeatedly remind ourselves to bring mindfulness back inside — whether through a mantra of recitation, a meditation image, or simply awareness of the feeling within the body — and resolve to stay with that continuously, whatever appears most vividly while sitting can become our anchor point, as long as it appears within the body. When body and mind unite, that is when mindfulness arises.

Different From Just Sitting Around, by Turning the Mind Inward

Sitting meditation differs from sitting around or relaxing in this way: casual sitting is still just sitting, comfortable sitting is still just sitting. But whenever our sitting involves turning the mind back within, that is called meditation, or training in mindfulness — whether in the posture of walking, standing, or being aware of any one of the 32 parts of the body. At first there is no fixed point, but once the power of concentration settles, it naturally flows back within, to the center of the body, automatically.

All 84,000 Sections of Dhamma Already Exist Within Us

What we study is not something new, not something we lack — it is something we already have but do not know how to use. The feelings within, the mind, the mental factors, the spheres of mindfulness, concentration, wisdom, loving-kindness, equanimity, and all other Dhamma teachings across the 84,000 sections — the Buddha did not bring them from elsewhere. They exist within us, appearing as a clear, luminous sphere within, waiting only to be pointed out to us, for each of us to reach according to our own effort. But the starting point is always training in establishing mindfulness.

Sati-Sampajañña Is the Key That Unlocks Merit-Power

Sati-sampajañña is a Dhamma of great support to wholesome states and to merit-power. Without it, we cannot access the Dhamma within, across all 84,000 sections. Sati-sampajañña is like a door leading into the Dhamma within — but without the key to unlock it, we cannot perceive the Dhamma that lies behind it. Mindfulness itself is that key, unlocking the merit that is to arise.

Purifying the Hindrances and Defilements Through Merit-Power

Knowing this, each day we come to study in the program or go about our daily routine, we should resolve to hold mindful awareness continuously, to purify the hindrances (nivarana) within the mind, to cleanse the defilements that cling to the mind from likes and dislikes arising whether intentionally or not. These accumulate within us as suffering and danger — this is defilement. Nothing else can purify it except merit-power, or the training that gives rise to merit-power.

Sitting in Dhamma Is the Direct Path to Nibbāna

In Buddhism, training in mindfulness or sitting in Dhamma practice is therefore what generates the greatest merit-power, because it is the path that leads directly toward Nibbāna. When we hold mindful awareness within, we have the right to invoke — enough power to request the merit and blessings of those with knowing and insight, of those with spiritual power, to descend and align with us — like a door connecting us to Nibbāna, which already exists. All the Fully Enlightened Buddhas, more numerous than the grains of sand in the four great oceans, have power enough to help all humans whose hearts incline toward and recollect the Triple Gem. When our mind inclines toward them, the connecting point is mindfulness, and the power of pure energy, or merit-power, arises and flows to us. So sitting in Dhamma practice is simply this recognition alone — nothing more needs to be sought or done. Just bring the mind back within our own body, this fathom-long, cubit-wide, span-high frame, without letting the mind drift outward. Doing only this, the energy or merit-power arises and flows through us, purifying all those things.